EDITOR OF REDSTATE

“It’s akin to saying David Dewhurst is a kid toucher because kissed a baby on the campaign trail.”

I have always had a lot of respect for the guys who are running David Dewhurst’s campaign, but I’m starting to see now why Rick Perry had no chance of getting elected President. The same team running Dewhurst’s campaign ran Perry’s Presidential campaign and has stooped to what I thought would be an impossible low.Contra the headline at CNN.com, David Dewhurst actually raised less money than Ted Cruz. Dewhurst had to pump over $4 million into his campaign to save face and win the media spin that he outpaced Cruz. In fact, Cruz has raised $1.7 million and Dewhurst raised $1.5 million.So now Dewhurst’s campaign team is accusing Ted Cruz of supporting pedophiles, going so far as to try to tie him to Jerry Sandusky.Not. Kidding.The scurrilous charge stems from Ted Cruz’s law firm taking on the appeal of a developer in Pennsylvania who had a dispute with an insurance company and had lost in district court. Ted Cruz got the case.The company was in Pennsylvania and the client was involved in litigation related to a scandal that involved bribing judges to steer juvenile delinquents to the private jail facility his company built. He had previously pleaded guilty to failing to report a felony to the authorities. Cruz had nothing to do with the criminal case or the related civil litigation at all.Moreso, Cruz’s client seemingly had nothing to do with the scandal involving the kids either. His crime was about not telling the IRS the judges involved had mischaracterized their income. In other words, as Ted Cruz said, his client’s actual victim in the case was the IRS, not kids. That hasn’t stopped David Dewhurst. David Dewhurst is out with an ad highlighting Ted Cruz + Pennsylvania + kids involved and strongly implying that Ted Cruz supported a pedophile. He’s using Cruz’s remarks about the criminal case being a tax case and not a case about kids against Cruz to imply Cruz is ignoring victimized children.It’s ludicrous and it is false. But that’s not stopping David Dewhurst from running with it. In a campaign email sent late yesterday by Megan Hanson, the Dewhurst campaign wrote,

Ted Cruz was fined the maximum penalty by the U.S. Senate Ethics Commission for breaking the law and failing to submit his Personal Financial Disclosure. Now, Texans are learning what Cruz was hiding. Ted Cruz is representing Robert Mericle, a child-exploiting, judge-bribing felon of the infamous “Kids for Cash” scandal.

The fine was for failing to timely file his disclosures. He missed a deadline. That’s all.The rest? It’s akin to saying David Dewhurst is a kid toucher because he kissed a baby on the campaign trail. In other words, it is desperate nonsense.It also is a strong indicator, coupled with Cruz outpacing Dewhurst in fundraising, that Dewhurst really does believe he is losing the race. Good.